Drain-tile



H. R. ST HT APPLICATION L 0 OCT. 14, 1913.

1,851,878. Patentedsept. 7,1920.

UNlTED STATES HALVER R. STRAIGHT, OF

ABEL, IOWA.

DRAIN-TILE.

Specification of Letters Patent,

Patented Sept. *7, 1920.

Application filed October 14, 1918. Serial No. 258,075.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HALVER R; STRAIGHT,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Adel, in the county of Dallas and State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and useful Drain-Tile, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has to do with drain tiles.

The object of my invention is to provide adrain tile structure so constructed that the capacity of the drain at the joints between the tiles, fortaki; in water and for permitting the outward passage of air for reducing the back pressure on the water taken into the drain, caused by the partial vacuum created by the movement of the water, is increased to the point for permittin drainage of a maximum soil area.

it is my object to provide tiles for accomplishing the above purpose having at their ends grooves extending from the exterior of the tiles inwardly toward the interior thereof, and so arranged that in the ordinary installation oi the tiles in the drain, such grooves furnish channels appropriate for the intake of amaximum volume oi water and the sufficient escape of air lVith these and other objects in view my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth pointed out in my claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows an end elevation of a portion of a tile embodying my invention, the full cross lines showing the grooves and the dotted lines illustrating the relative positions of grooves in an adjacent tile.

Fig. 2 shows a. similar view illustrating the positions which would be taken by the grooves of a different kind intlre ends of a similar adjacent tile.

Fig. 3 shows aside elevation of of two tiles placed end to end;

Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of portions of the ends of two adjacent tiles.

Fig. 5 shows a side'elevation'of the end of one tile, and,

Fig. 6 shows a diagrammatic view illustrating the effect of the use of my improved tile structure on drainage.

For many years in the making and use of adrain tile structure it has beenv known that one of the great problems is to place a portion the t les together end to end close enough so that not much dirt or sand can get into the drain and yet so as to permit some water to seep into the drain at the joints.

It is well-known also that it is difficult to utilize the full carrying capacity of the drain where ordinary drain tiles are used for the reasonthat the joints will not take in enough water to fill the drain tiles.

This failure is due to the narrowness of thespace between the tiles which is limited in its capacity for taking in water, especially in branches where few joints are available.

It is also well-known that where water is taken into the drain at the tiles, air must be permitted to pass into the pores of the earth to take the place of the water. This air comes from the upper part of th tiles ordinarily, and if the joint between the tiles is tight, it follows that the air does not pass out freely and there is some back pressure on the incoming water. which limits the speed of such incoming water, and thereby reducesthe total drainage capacity of the drain.

My invention resides in the making of a drain with tiles having their ends so constructed as to increase the capacity of the drain at the joints to take in water, and to let out air without permitting too much dirt to be taken in, so that a maximum drainage may be secured.

in the accompanying drawings I have shown in Fig. l a portion of a drain tile 10.

In ordinary drain tiles the ends are cut smooth. in my drain tile the end. in the ordinary rorm, is provided with a series of parallel coves 11, each leading from the exterior of the tile toward a point nearer the interior oi the tile. Some of the grooves, as shown in the upper part of Fig. 1. lead directly across the wall of the tile. Other of the grooves 11, as shown at the side in Fig. 1, lead toward but do not reach the interior of the tile and do not lead directly from the exterior toward the interior.

These grooves are parallel because parallel grooves are easier to make.

The grooves are slightly spaced apart, as shown in 5, so that when two adjacent tiles are placed together, there would be no danger or" the grooves meshing, since the little tongues between the grooves of one tile could not fit into the grooves of the adjacent tile.

the joints between In other words the tongues are slightly wider than the mouths of the grooves.

In Fig. 3 I have shown a pair of tiles placed together with the grooves registering. This is to illustrate that where the grooves register, the openings will not be large enough to permit the intake of a large amount of sand or dirt and where such registration occurs, an accumulation of the coarser particles will soon prevent any dirt going through. i

In Fig. 4: the horizontal dotted lines show. the grooves nearest to the surface of the lower tile, while the upper dotted lines show the grooves on the farthest side of the lower tile. These dotted lines simply illustrate the relative positions of the grooves.

In Fig. 2 the dotted lines 13, it will be noticed, are curved and represent the relative positions of grooves in a tile having curved grooves at one end and straight grooves at the other. IVhere the curved grooves are used on one end of the tile, the curved grooves may be placed ad acent to the straight grooves of another tile andtherev will be no possibility of the grooves registering and leaving large openings for the intake of sand.

A. brief explanation of the operation of my filter end drain tile in comparison with the operation of an ordinary drain tile will serve to show more clearly the advantages of the structure hereinbefore described.

It is well-known that a line of drain tiles draws from a strip of land above the. tiles, and that a line of approximate saturation of tie soil extends from the drain tiles outwardly and upwardly in opposite directions on a substantially hyperbolic curve.

One'of the elements which determines the amount of water which is taken from, the soil into the drain tile line, is the space between the adjacent ends of the tiles.

Ordinary drain tiles are cut with a wire or. the like and the ends are comparatively smooth.

In the drain, the tiles are placed with the ends immediately adjacent to each other and practically all tiles in common use, unless the tiles are thoroughly vitrified, will swell slightly when water soaked, so that the ends become pressed tightly together in the.

ground.

By using my filter end drain tiles, it will be seen that numerous channels are provided at each oint through which water may flow freely from the adjacent soil into the drain,

and this, of course, is true with my type of tile regardless of any swelling of the tiles and consequent pressure of the ends of the tiles on each other.

It will be noticed that each groove 11 and 12, regardless of its position at the end of the tile, extends from the outside of the tile toward the inside thereof.

the rarest instances that the grooves of the adjacent tiles would register, if the tiles were placed in the ditch promiscuously in the ordinary course of laying the drain.

Even if the grooves in the adjacent ends of the, tiles would register, no serious harm would be done, although such registering is not desirable for it would make the channels larger than desirable, so that there might be some passage of fine sand or the like into the tiles at first.

Where the tile ends are placed together in the ordinarv way without any effort to make the grooves register, it will be seen that the grooves in the ends of the adjacent tiles will cross each other at a great variety of angles. The result will'be that practically all of the grooves will then serve as channels, whereby water may travel from outside thetiles to the inside thereof.

This is true for the reason that those grooves in the end of one tile which do not reach the interior of the tile, will, at various places in their length, cross the grooves in the opposite tile which do extend to the interior of the tile, so that water passing into one of the grooves, such, for instance, as the groove A of one tile end will be transferred to the groove B in the end of the opposite drain tile; the path of such water being illustrated by the arrow in Fig. l.

I i-case the groove B is not able to handle all of the water taken into the tiles through the groove A, 0n account of the fact that the groove B is taking in water from the outside, then some of the water taken in through the groove A may pass on and enter the. groove B and be thereby carried to the interior of the tile,

Thus the actual water carrying capacity of the space between joints is increased so as to make it possible for the tile drain to take up more water than would otherwise be, possible.

Another advantage of the structure herein shown arises in the following manner:

lVhen water passes from the adj aeent soil into a tile of a drain, that water must be replaced in the pores of the soil by air. Such air must come either from the surface of the, ground, or from the surrounding pores in the soil, or from the tile drain. The deeper in the ground, the less air comes from the surface and the more air must come from the tile drain when the deep lying water is displaced.

If the ends of the adjacent tiles are tightly joined together, then it will be obvious that part of the relatively small path or opening at the joint must be used for letting air out of the tile, and hence that the amount of water taken in is reduced, by the fact that the air passing out of the tiles reduces the available path for the water. here my structure is used, it will be obvious that there is a much freer path for the escape of air from the tiles, as Well as for the intake of water, with a corresponding decrease of back pressure against the inflowing water.

Because of the increased capacity to take in water, and because of the decreased back pressure from the air, the saturation curves from the tile drain upwardly and outwardly on each side toward the surface of the ground, are flattened, and the strip of ground which is properly drained by the tiles is correspondingly widened.

On account of this flattening of the curves immediately adjacent to the tile, the cross sectional area of the non-saturated ground near the tile is increased, so that the number 01 pores available for carrying water to the tiles is increased.

In Fig. 6 I have shown two tile drains, the dotted lines 1% and 15 illustrating roughly the saturation curves of the ordinary tile drain, while the lines 16 and '17 illustrate the saturation curves where my improved filter end tiles are used.

The saving in tiles, on account of the fact that the same number 'of tiles can be used to drain a larger area, is obvious from the foregoing explanation.

It will be obvious that if my tiles were used instead of the ordinary tiles, a quicker drainage of the same area may be had, and in all soils this is desirable.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my improved drain tile structure without departing from the essential features and purposes thereof, and it is my intention to cover by my application any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents, which may be reasonably included within the scope of my claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A drain tile having in each end a series of grooves, said grooves extending from the exterior of the tile toward the interior thereof, the grooves at the opposite ends of the tile being arranged on different lines tangentially of the periphery of the tile, so that when the non-corresponding ends of two tiles are placed together i the said grooves will not register.

2.1.1 drain tile structure comprising a plurality of tile laid end to end and spaced from eachother slightly said tiles having in their adjacent ends grooves arranged to extend from the exterior toward the interior ot' the tiles, and inclined so as to form passages between the adjacent tiles for water, said passages being thus arranged so that they will catch sand particles at the intersections of t 1e grooves in the adjacent tile near the outer surface of the tiles for forming a permanent filter, said grooves being also so arranged as herein described, to form a greater cross sectional area of inlets through the tile joint than is possible with smooth ends so laid adjacent to each other, and vet with a smaller average size for each inlet.

3. A drain tile having a series of substantially ad' acent parallel grooves in each end over its entire surface.

a. A drain tile having a series of substantially adjacent parallel grooves in each end over its entire surface, the width of the spaces between the grooves being slightly greater than the widths of said grooves.

Des Moines, Iowa, September 19, 1918.

HALVER R. STRAIGHT. 

